# wells-co — Colorado well permits, how deep and how much water

> Look up any of 600,017 Colorado well permits by permit or receipt number. Whether the well was built, whether the permit expired, and what depth and yield the Division was told.

## Is there a well permit on this Colorado land — and is it still good?

Type the permit number or the receipt number. **600,017** permits, and the answer includes the two things a buyer actually needs: whether the well was ever built, and how deep it had to go.

Working through a list of parcels? [Pro
access](/pro.md) resolves permits in bulk, and the [datasets](/data.md) are
published with their prices — from USD 300 a month for
the stream of changes.

### 98,256 permits were issued and the well was never dug

That is **16.4%** of the register. A Colorado
well permit lapses if the well is not constructed in the time allowed, and
this is the trap in a rural land sale: a seller produces a permit, and the
permit died years ago. [What an expired permit does and
does not mean](/expired.md).

### How deep you have to drill is not the same everywhere

It is not close. County medians on this register run from
**30 feet** to **360 feet**
— and depth is what a well costs, because a driller charges by the foot.
The figures below are medians over the permits where the Division was told; a
mean would be carried away by a few industrial holes.

*Medians, over the permits where the Division was told — never a mean*

| County | Median depth (ft) | Median yield (gpm) | Permits measured |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Douglas](/county/douglas.md) | **360** | 13 | 13,848 |
| [Elbert](/county/elbert.md) | **341** | 12 | 10,646 |
| [El Paso](/county/el-paso.md) | **292** | 10 | 29,266 |
| [Baca](/county/baca.md) | **270** | 650 | 3,227 |
| [Phillips](/county/phillips.md) | **270** | 20 | 1,499 |
| [Teller](/county/teller.md) | **260** | 6 | 7,373 |
| [Clear Creek](/county/clear-creek.md) | **252** | 7 | 3,502 |
| [Gilpin](/county/gilpin.md) | **250** | 7 | 3,355 |
| [Park](/county/park.md) | **240** | 5.7 | 16,402 |
| [Kit Carson](/county/kit-carson.md) | **235** | 20 | 4,124 |
| [Yuma](/county/yuma.md) | **232** | 15 | 7,725 |
| [Ouray](/county/ouray.md) | **220** | 10 | 791 |
| [Moffat](/county/moffat.md) | **210** | 8 | 2,687 |
| [Jefferson](/county/jefferson.md) | **203** | 6 | 27,288 |

[Depth and yield in all 63 counties with
enough permits to measure](/depth.md).

### A permit says what the water may be used for

This is the part people get wrong. A well permit is not a general right to
water: **household use only** means inside the house — no
lawn, no livestock, no garden.

| Decreed use | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [Domestic](/use/domestic.md) | 243,096 | 40.5% |
| [Household Use Only](/use/household-use-only.md) | 105,372 | 17.6% |
| [Monitoring/sampling](/use/monitoring-sampling.md) | 91,022 | 15.2% |
| [Irrigation](/use/irrigation.md) | 47,689 | 7.9% |
| [Stock](/use/stock.md) | 31,328 | 5.2% |
| [Commercial](/use/commercial.md) | 22,356 | 3.7% |
| [Other](/use/other.md) | 18,823 | 3.1% |
| [Not stated](/use/not-stated.md) | 15,448 | 2.6% |
| [Municipal](/use/municipal.md) | 9,424 | 1.6% |
| [Industrial](/use/industrial.md) | 8,665 | 1.4% |
| [Geothermal](/use/geothermal.md) | 3,815 | 0.6% |

### What none of it measures

Depth is on the file for **63 %** of permits, yield
for 23 %, static water level for 49 %. A blank is not a
zero, and no page here fills one in. Nothing in this register says whether a
well still produces today.

### Where they are

| County | Permits | Share |
|---|---|---|
| [El Paso](/county/el-paso.md) | 46,491 | 7.7% |
| [Weld](/county/weld.md) | 43,473 | 7.2% |
| [Jefferson](/county/jefferson.md) | 42,751 | 7.1% |
| [Adams](/county/adams.md) | 26,561 | 4.4% |
| [Park](/county/park.md) | 22,930 | 3.8% |
| [Douglas](/county/douglas.md) | 22,500 | 3.7% |
| [Larimer](/county/larimer.md) | 20,919 | 3.5% |
| [Boulder](/county/boulder.md) | 20,791 | 3.5% |
| [La Plata](/county/la-plata.md) | 18,518 | 3.1% |
| [Elbert](/county/elbert.md) | 17,636 | 2.9% |
| [Arapahoe](/county/arapahoe.md) | 17,030 | 2.8% |
| [Denver](/county/denver.md) | 13,096 | 2.2% |
| [Pueblo](/county/pueblo.md) | 12,597 | 2.1% |
| [Yuma](/county/yuma.md) | 12,410 | 2.1% |
| [Garfield](/county/garfield.md) | 12,165 | 2.0% |
| [Grand](/county/grand.md) | 11,297 | 1.9% |
| [Teller](/county/teller.md) | 10,843 | 1.8% |
| [Fremont](/county/fremont.md) | 10,353 | 1.7% |
| [Chaffee](/county/chaffee.md) | 10,321 | 1.7% |
| [Alamosa](/county/alamosa.md) | 10,088 | 1.7% |

[All 63 counties](/county.md) · [Depth and yield](/depth.md) · [Expired permits](/expired.md) · [Decreed uses](/use.md) · [Aquifers](/aquifer.md) · [How this site is built](/about.md)

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Página: https://wells-co.pages.dev/
Fonte: Well Application Permit — Colorado Division of Water Resources
Recolha: 2026-08-21